Cooking with Kathleen

My daughter’s Color Guard team is attending a Performing Arts Dance Camp this week.  She came home last night at 10 pm exhausted and returned to the camp this morning ‘bright eyed and bushy tailed’ at 8 am!  I am taking a quick break from work this afternoon to make her some muffins she can bring to camp tomorrow for a treat.

I have 2 bananas on the counter…way too ripe to eat, but perfect enough for baking (very soft to touch and yellow with many brown spots) and 2 over-ripe bananas in the bottom of my freezer (these bananas were virtually brown when placed in freezer the other week).  I also found some blueberries in the fridge and about a cup of 2% milk.  Perfect ingredients for blueberry banana muffins!  I am (believe it or not) too lazy to search and find my muffin file and since I am already at the kitchen table working on my laptop – I decide to just search the internet for blueberry banana muffin recipes.  Well – low and behold there must be over 20,000+ recipes online!  How do I choose?  Well, I scroll through the first few recipes until I find one that has the ingredients I have on hand and not complicated or time consuming.

I follow the recipe exactly; preheat the oven, mix the wet and dry ingredients together and add the blueberries last.  Now, because I have a baking background I quickly realize something is missing from the batter.  I check the recipe on-line again and verify all the ingredients, not missing anything…then I taste the batter…yuck – no sugar specified in the recipe!  How could I miss this important ingredient?   More importantly, how many other people have accessed this recipe and made the same mistake as me – especially the novice baker?  Not wanting to waste the batter I have in front of me, I add some sugar (taking an educated guess on quantity), place in prepared muffin tins, pop them in the oven and hope the muffins will be, at least, palatable for the dog.

The cooking time is noted to be 15 minutes.  Fifteen minutes later the muffins are only partially cooked (Note: Oven is calibrated for correct temperature).  I adjust the cooking time and bake for 10 more minutes + 3 more minutes…+ 2 more minutes.  The final product is not quite what I expect, but considering the fact I have 2 teenagers with ravaging appetites…most of these muffins will be consumed by humans in our house, but not with a bit of coaxing from me.

When someone takes the time to bake a treat – whether for the family or for a friend in need – the recipe should be legitimate.  The internet is very convenient and literally at our fingertips – , BUT there are tens of thousands of recipes out in “cyberspace” that have neither been tested or written correctly.  Good cookbooks and your mom’s recipe files – yes, the ones that are donning the shelves in your kitchen, are still the most comprehensive and complete library of “tested” recipes…recipes that are tried and true.  Take recommendations from family and friends for good cookbooks and recipes.  Make sure you write in your cookbooks, noting adjustments you would like to make or additions to the recipe.  Also, write the names of recipes from that particular book that are special on the inside cover of each cookbook you own.  This will act as a quick reference when finding that special pancake recipe you made 5 years ago on Christmas morning.

Here is a great recipe that is tried and true.  My mother would make this same recipe when I was growing up.  They are not too sweet so you can actually taste the banana, blueberry and nuts.

Banana-Blueberry-Nut Muffins

 1¼ cup mashed bananas (2-3 ripe bananas)

½ cup vegetable oil

½ cup milk

1 egg slightly beaten

2 cups + 2 tablespoons flour*

½ cup packed brown sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans or almonds)

1 cup fresh blueberries (if frozen, toss with 1 tablespoon of dry ingredient mix before mixing in batter)

1. Preheat oven to 400⁰ degrees and line 18 muffin cups with paper baking cups.
2. Beat bananas, vegetable oil, milk and egg together.
3. Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nuts.
4. Combine wet into dry and mix until ingredients are barely incorporated.  Fold in blueberries with 2 or 3 turns of the spoon.  Batter will be like a thick stew.  Spoon into muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 20-22 minutes or until light golden brown.  Let cool in muffin tins for 10 minutes then remove from tins.  Eat warm or cool.  Freezes well.

Our teens had their wisdom teeth pulled on Friday.  Yes, 4^th of July dinner was quite an interesting array of “whipped-up” foods.  When you live with two teens who love to eat and one is a boy…you have to have food – and lots of it…available at all times!  Here’s the list of foods that we made to help ease the hunger.  I have included some notes that helped make the foods more appealing and tasty – even my husband and I ate some of it!

“Whipped” foods

Smoothies

Strawberries, peaches, blueberries, banana’s, low-fat vanilla yogurt, ice cubes.  This is all you need to create an array of fabulous drinks.  Add a touch of rum for the adult care-givers.

Applesauce

Chocolate pudding – has to be chocolate!

Milk shakes

My mom’s famous protein wisdom teeth protein shake includes vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, banana, peanut butter, 1 raw egg, and skim milk.

Jell-O – of course it has to be orange!

Chicken soup

Take a whole chicken and cook it up in a pot of water with 2-3 stalks of celery, 3 coarsely chopped onion, 2-3 large carrots, 5 pepper corns, 2 cloves and a handful of parsley, for about 2-3 hours; salt and pepper to taste.  Strain broth and peel chicken off the bone.  Combine broth, chicken meat and cooked carrots in a food processor until smooth.  Serve.

Mashed Potatoes

I add garlic, sweet potato, white potato, and carrots.  Cook until fork tender; strain.  Prepare as you would mashed potatoes – seasoning with salt and pepper.

Yogurt

Soft Foods

Scrambled eggs

Cottage Cheese

 Pasta

            Acini de Pepe – cooked until quite soft and toss with garlic sautéed in olive oil.  Add a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar – yumm!

Oatmeal

Cream of wheat

Egg salad

Hard boiled eggs

Mac and Cheese – Stouffer’s makes the best!

Today I sit in the lobby of a testing center waiting for my daughter to take her chemistry CLEP exam.  Perfect time to get some work done, but all I can think about is “what do I make for dinner?”  Of course, I know you must be thinking the same thing.  Aren’t we all?  I mean, there are the obvious answers like, order out pizza, grab some fast food, or the local Mexican restaurant always has great nacho’s…Oh nacho’s?  Yes, nacho’s!  What a great idea!  Why go out for nacho’s when I can make them, cheaper, better and a bit more healthy right from home?  So here is what I’ll pick up on the way home from the testing center to get dinner on the table tonight, and I know some of this stuff I already have in my pantry or freezer.

I sometimes make my own taco seasoning mix, but tonight I opt for the quick and easy and use the pre-packaged seasoning mix.

A bag of whole-grain tortilla chips (Snyder’s® makes a great tasting whole-grain chip), some sharp cheddar cheese, cherry tomatoes, ground meat, low-sodium taco seasoning mix and a bunch of scallions.  I always use 1½ pounds of meat with the seasoning mix instead of the designated pound.  This helps stretch the meal a bit more and, to tell you the truth, tastes better.

Nacho’s home style

1 ½ pound ground chuck (substitute ground chicken or turkey)

1 bag of low-sodium taco seasoning mix

1 15-ounce bag whole-grain tortilla chips

½ pint cherry tomatoes cut in half

1 bunch scallions (white and tender green parts), thinly sliced

1 pound shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1.      Prepare ground chuck with seasoning mix as stated on package (being sure to use the 1½ pounds of meat).

2.      Place chips on large cookie sheet or oven proof platter, sprinkle with meat, tomatoes, scallions and top with cheese.  Place under broiler on low for approximately 3-4 minutes watching carefully not to burn the chips.  Enjoy!

Serve Nacho’s with salsa and a low-fat sour cream.  If you have time – make a side of guacamole.

Quick Tip: Use 3 boneless/skinless chicken breasts cut into thin strips in place of ground meat.  Brown in non-stick skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 8-10 minutes on medium high; stir occasionally before adding seasoning mix.

For Keeps:  Don’t throw out the leftovers!  The meat, tomatoes, scallions and cheese are great on a bed of greens the next day with a few chips crumbled on top.  Dress with some vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and you have one outstanding salad for lunch.